Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-07
"a GREAT QUESTION.
If6 People Of Fort Worth Desire to
81 Extend Their Retail Trade,
y TrebliDg its Volume.
What Should b. Done In THE New Year
to Accomplish this Very I'm
portant Move.

trade and become more prosperous and it
bet doves q city like Fort Worth to do
the same thing. All our PEG lie are inter-
ested in seeing Fort Worth reach the full
measure of possible prosperity, and
therefore all our people should
counsel together and take steps to put
On foot those enterprises that will add
in this good year 1887 to our material
prosperity.
Fort Worth has done we'll in the matter
Of railroads, has secured so many trunk
lines, and is to have within the year so
many more that her DISTRIBUTE facili-
ties are unequaled by any city in the
state, and the natural competition OF
these li~es of roads is swing US the low
est freight rates from the great trade Gen.
Iers. This has made us g great WHOLE
sale msrt, but it is most desirable that in
still further extending our wholesale
trade We also increase the trade oftoQT
many retail merchants. -
This end can be reached BY a
combination OF several enterprises:
First, this city must do all within
its power to build in every diTectioE fiFst
class, straight macadamized Iadds that
viii connect the towns aud villages
Tsgfant and adjacent counties with Fort
Worth and enable the farm, to drive an
w4 weather or dry without inconven-
ie1te, dispose of his produce or
mike his purchases and return
10 his home the same day tosny
point not over thirty miles disrsnt. No
argument is needed 10 show hoa this
would benefit our city. @sss,
Fort Worth must have manufacturing
lsborers who will live with US and be-
come part of the community, and con-
sumers as We'll as producers.
There is now being agitated a
great economic question which
interests Fort Worth deeply, and
if the suggestions made by men
OF experience are acted on and
the enterprise carried out the result
eau not fail to rebound to our pros
perity. This enterprise is at hand
and ready to be put in motion
and the coming cattle convention at
Dallas suggests to THE GAZETTE as it
will doubtless to the people of Fort
Worth that now is the accepted time to
inaugurate this movement.
The following article is taken from the
New York Post of Il recent date, aud was
written by gentleman who had just re-
turned from Texas 10 New York.
Il have iust return from the plains
and the grazing country contiguous to
the Rocky mountains, having travelled the
past summer through Colorado, Texas,
New Mexico and portion OF Old NJ X
ice. | have me il contact with ranch
OThers, co8mer, cattle buyers, beef
ptekers and men of varied interes s in
the cattle business IF this country, and
snow upon coming East | find that the
present price of beef is a common topic
of conversation here as we'll as among
cow men ali over the grazing country O..
The West; the producers Of the West cry
ing out against the runors low prices
paid for their train-loads of beef steers,
and cursiDg the grasping and monopo-
llZing tendencies of the few great buyers
of Chicago ana Kansas City markets,
While the oeef-eaters Of the East are most
emphatic IL their demands upon the re-
tail marketman for Il sweeping reduction
in his scale of prices
Now, one VINO feels the effect of the
low prices in the West in the sale of his
cattle on the one hand and the high
prices in the East in the support of his
family on the other, cannot reasonably
satisfy himself at first how 1t is that
20 to rs cents pounds for
choice cuts in the East should
not net him more than cents 8 pound
gross for his steers in the West; but if we
follow out and carefully trace train load
Of steers from their western range
through 20 the cutting blocks in our New
York retail markets, We should be able TO
i, eide beyond any doubt that the ridicu
lousy low prices paid the Cowman are
mainly due to the systematic and whole
sale robbery carried on by monoPUlizug
firms Of Chicago buyers and their CO.
partners in other great markets in the
West.
The price of beef to the consumer is as
much too high as the price to the pro-
Queer is too low. 1t is G question in
which the consumer is greatly interested
SIS matter of economy, but il is not
question of life and death to his bust
ness, as it is to the producer, and
cowmen of the West are actively devils
ing some way to break down the NO.
ncpo!ies and bring the producer and con-
sumer closer together.
Two or three ways are suggested. One
is to raise capital snd establish houSesln
opposition to the mouopolists. THIS,
unless backed b, enormous capital and
Influence. would doubtless result
in failure Another plan which
must at once commend itself to
both producer and consumer,
as practical, sen-ible and economical, is
,l,o+ ant
points on the great ranges of the West.
The beef would then De slaughtered on
the ground where it is fattened, and sent
East i'll through refrigerator cars. This
would saye'to the cOwman all shrinkage
of live stock in transit, witch is no small
i EN-, and livestock freight to Chicago
besides which the b,ef would reach
Eastern markets in much finer condition.
A l5O0-pOuud steer under the most favor
sole conditions will shrink $50 pounds in
q Journey of 1000 miles by rall. If this
steer WAS slaughtered on the range his
steaks would be sweet and juicy, but this
$50 pounds ShrlnEage caused by lack At
TO d and water, and feyered exhaustion
In q crowded car, is mainly an evupora-
ton Of the juices of tn meat; henc. the
dry and ta>teless steaks we sometimes
get here in h East.
The producer will be satisfied with the
market value Of his steers, providing tina
market is allowed to fluctuate in It's na-
tural way under the unnindered Influence
of supply and demand. The consumer
demands aud should have q re-
duction from present prices. Thi>
change can only be brought
about by breaking down the mouopo
lies. We are wasting breath and time in
going about denouncing their methods as
rascally and villaninus. They are not
robbers. They are doing business in q
lawful and legitimate way, and are mere
" taking advantage of the situation. 1t
is our duty and privilege to checkmate